Greetings from the Isle of Man!

[crdodgeon]

My friend and I are thinking we should be sponsored by Tenna because we spent so much time thinking we'd wet ourselves in fear!!

 

You'll find that there are a lot of us here who've gone through that; I certainly had a phase where I was thinking that I should simply ride a hobby horse - far safer, and kept my feet on the ground. 

[Amanda1950]

Hello 

What a fab story - looking forward to hearing more about you journey with Meindert 

and I have to say, Meindert is very gorgeous 

[night-mare]

Hi and welcome many of us have been in/through/out  that tenna stage  so fear not , you are in good company here 

[shoveltrash]

hi & welcome!!
nice to have you here, and Minder too .  he is lovely .  love your story.......and btw when I had my Friesian I rode for years in a treeless saddle, the ONLY thing that would fit him .

[epona]

another friesian fan here!!  Miender is 

I rode Antsje in a Fhoenix, Vogue and finally in a semiflex - all worked well.

The Ideal "Jessica" also seems quite suitable for friesians 

[Heather]

Hello there and welcome! I have always been a sucker for Friesians, since my Mum bought me the Observers Book of HOrses and Ponies as a child and I fell totally in love with the Friesian stallion in it! Quite how I have never got round to owning one, I am not sure, reckon the movement is now too big for my old bones so too late! But it has been a pleasure to work with a number of them over the years and there are three featured in the revision of my book due out in September!

[FriesianTart]

Thankyou everyone! Friesians get in everywhere, glad to see some kindred souls here, I'm sure I will be beating a path to your doors!!  I think I probably had the same book Heather, but was seduced by the tennessee walking horse's tail!!  I've been a sucker for a long tail ever since! Look forward to seeing Friesians in the new book.

Everyone's kind words, experience and just welcoming me in came at exactly the right time because this week has been yukk!!  

I tried out my friend's wow dressage saddle (sorry Heather!) on M on Tuesday, and was so taken with it and M's free action in it, that I decided to call my saddler - who is a wow fitter - and see if she could find me something second hand as I'm on a very tight budget. Anyway, to cut a long story short(er!) I got a 1 liner back saying she no longer does saddle fitting. Which is very surprising since she had fitted my friend's wow saddle, that I had just tried!!! The problem here on such a small Island is that we are 75,000 people all stuck on the same rock and everybody knows every body's business - so in less than 10 minutes I find out that my saddler and my riding instructor have a long standing feud going on and guess who knew nothing(!!) and got caught in the cross fire?!! I really cant be doing with this at my vast age, life is truly too short.  And I really can't have someone dictating who I take instruction from, now can I?!

So, it's back to the drawing board!  My friend is helping me source the parts I need, and I found a Wow fitter on the mainland who is prepared to help. All is not lost.  Everyone was telling me not to take it personally, but I found it very difficult not to. However, I am taking myself off to see Take That in Birminham next week, maybe a little singalong is just what I need to let the pressure escape!

One other thing - self fullfilling prophecy - I told my boss 6 years ago that I would be going for gold at the olympics individual dressage on a Friesian in 2012 - well, I have a Friesian and I'm going to the 2012 finals because I got my ticket confirmation last week..... so long as that guy doesnt get Tortilas back, me and M should be in with a chance as there's loads of time yet, dont you think?